Speaker: Charlene Grafton. The topic of her presentation is, “What’s In Your Genes? Human Disease Traits.” She is a survivor of Stevens Johnson Syndrome caused by a severe reaction to Septra DS in 2009. She retired in July 2013 as Nurse Case Manager but continues to write and market her books. Her seventh book is about the last four years of her life. After hearing of pharmacovigilance (see the note at end of article) in 2009, and being a medical writer for doctors, nurses and other health care professionals, she wrote the book What’s In Your Genes: Human Threads Linking Genetics and Genealogy. She is a participant in the Personal Genome Project with Dr. George Church at Harvard.

Charlene taught tennis at PJC for 15 years, started the UWF collegiate tennis program, and helped start Pensacourt Sports Center in 1980. She is a veteran of the Korean War, and a board member of the Council on Aging for Okaloosa and Walton Counties. Her website is www.charlenehgrafton.com.

Note: Pharmacovigilance (PV) is defined as the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects or any other drug-related problem.
http://www.who.int/medicines/areas/quality_safety/safety_efficacy/pharmvigi/en/

West Florida Genealogical Society’s Annual African-American Help Day. Jerry Merritt’s program will show techniques for beginning as well as experienced researchers, with an emphasis on locating hard-to-find information about African-American genealogy.

Mr. Merritt has been a popular presenter with WFGS members. His programs provide practical and easily understood methods for all genealogists.

Following the program, the West Florida Genealogy Library will be open and volunteers will provide research assistance using library computers and other resources. Since computer access is limited, attendees are encouraged to reserve a space by calling 478-6168. Personal laptops and tablets may be used; no reservation is required for them.

WFGS members and visitors are welcome. Refreshments will be available beginning at 9:30 AM.

We will have discussions on the following topics:
Short Tandem Repeats; Most Recent Common Ancestor; Y- markers; What is a
match?; Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor; Using Ancestry,com; and
FamilyTree.com web sites, comparing results from different companies.

Bert was born and raised in south Alabama, served 20 plus years in the military,
was a commercial pilot and school teacher for 7 years, and spent the last 13 years as a flight
insructor at Whiting Field. He is the current president of the West Florida Genealogical Society and past vice-president. He is a Member of North Carolina Genealogy Society, and the
National Genealogy Society.

From marriage bonds to freedom bonds, sureties given in a wide variety of circumstances can offer clues to our family members and their friends, associates and neighbors. Learn what they are, how to find them, and how to use them in building your family's FAN club.

Presentation by Kay
Rudolph. She will speak on “Building Your Genealogy
Research Skills.”

Bert Outlaw,
WFGS President, will present the second session of
“Genealogy Schoolhouse.” This month’s topic will
be “Organizing Genealogy Information With Free
Computer Software.” The Genealogy Schoolhouse
session will follow the regular WFGS meeting and
program after a short break. It is designed primarily
for beginners in genealogy, but everyone can benefit
from the presentation.

The WFGS program for June has been changed, due to unforeseen circumstances. The new program will be a CD presentation of “Google Earth for Genealogy” by Lisa Cooke. In addition, there WILL be a Genealogy Schoolhouse program: “A Basic Outline for Research” based on Megan Smolenyak’s book, Who Do You Think You Are?

Topic: FamilySearch.org: What’s New and How to Use It
Speaker: Elder Balling and Elder Blair, from the LDS Church

Presentation will include new records and features of Family Search; how to search, create a pedigree fan chart, share photos, build a family tree, chat with a live person for help, and use Puzilla to “find our cousins.” WFGS member Mrs. Lee Scott will also be available to answer any in-depth general questions.

FamilySearch.org is a free website with many genealogy records to access, and WFGS library volunteers have recently been trained to assist visitors in using its resources.

Note: this is the program originally scheduled for June, which we had to cancel due to unforeseen circumstances.
Members and guests are welcome to attend. Refreshments will be available at 9:45. Meeting begins at 10:00 A.M. Point of contact is Charlotte Schipman, 850-477-7166, email cschipman@mac.com

WFGS FamilySearch Training Sessions

The WFGS will offer several training sessions in August on the new features of FamilySearch. Two Elders from the LDS church will present the sessions. The training will be held at the West Florida Genealogy Library on the following dates:

Topic: Picasa
Speaker: Adam, from Laser Images in Pensacola
Picasa is a free application program available from Google. It allows you to edit, organize, and enhance your genealogy photos without disturbing the original photograph. It also includes face recognition software which can assist in identifying unknown pictures you may have.

You may want to download the program to your computer and play with it before the meeting.
Members and guests are welcome to attend. Refreshments will be available at 9:45.

Presenter: Carol Ellis,
Director, The Doy Leal McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of
South Alabama.

Topic: The McCall collection revolves around several families. She will
be more specifically touching on two of the families in the collection.

The mission of The Doy
Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library has been to identify, acquire,
appraise, preserve, organize, and describe important historical material
relating to the history of the Alabama Black Belt and its families, the history
of Mobile and southwest Alabama and its people, and the history of the
University of South Alabama.

Collection has been
valued at more than $1.3.

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NOTE: The Alabama Genealogical Society Fall Seminar will be held on Saturday, October 11, 2014, at the Alabama Department of Archives and History in Montgomery. The Archives Research Room will be open until 4:30 p.m. Marcia Collier will have her books available for sale from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Use this link for the information and registration form, or Google Alabama Genealogical Society and click on “Seminar"

Our speaker, Jacquelyn Wilson is a 4th generation Escambia County native, born at the Pensacola Maternity Hospital and educated at Ensley Elementary and Tate Jr./Sr. High. The family names associated with Pensacola are Jernigan and Hollihand. The Jernigan family came down around the turn of the 20th century from Pollard, Alabama, and were in the dairy business for several generations. Her father was from Mississippi, one of the "boys" who came to Pensacola for training during WWII. He met her mother while in training and returned to Pensacola after discharge and the rest, as they say, is history.

Jackie has a BFA and an MA in History, both from UWF, and she is the archivist for the UWF Historic Trust Archives, 117 E. Government Street, a position she has held since 2007.